Setting conditions to an offer

WR83

Good Afternoon,

We are in the final stages of negotiations of an offer on a house we wish to purchase. The vendor is currently fixed on achieving 98.5% of the asking price - this is after a recent 4% reduction, so effectively 95% of what they had it on the market for originally.  I think they are still asking for a bit too much, but in my current position, I would probably stretch to it if we could agree on some terms.

We have agreed to sell to our buyers with a completion prior to Christmas, but obviously time is too short for that to now happen with our purchase. We are flexible enough that we can put our belonging in storage over the festive period and stay with family, but would ideally like to be in our new home mid / late January at the latest (there are logical reasons for this - but won't bore you with them).  How do I go about making an offer but with this caveat to the seller - my fear is that they could just agree to it now and then hold up proceedings along the way and refuse to move out. I suppose the only thing in my favour is that come December I will have no house to sell and if it doesnt look to be progressing by then I can threaten to cancel the sale and still potentially find somewhere before the stamp duty cut.

Without rambling further - am I correct in thinking there is no way to enforce this as part of an offer, it would just be that it would be down as my aspirational timeline? Or could I impose costs for delay such as rental / removal storage past a certain date?

Thanks for any thoughts!

hazyjo

Have you already started the selling process? If not, I don't think you'd got much chance of being out before Christmas!

AnotherJoe

I'd say there's absolutely no way to enforce this, especially when things may be out of the vendors hands. What if your conveyancer causes a delay? Should the seller have to pay up when you missed completion date as a result?? Who would arbitrate in such a case esp where it was unclear where the fault lay?

WR83

Selling process already underway - we just hadn't managed to find something that we liked. We committed to moving out at Christmas as our buyers wanted to be in, their mortgage offer was due to expire before then, and we knew that we would be away for Christmas anyway. Worst case we knew we would have to short-term rent if needed, but seems sensible to try and enforce a completion on our purchase early if that works for us.

Just not sure there is anything you can actually do to make that happen.

wilfred30

WR83 said:

Good Afternoon,

We are in the final stages of negotiations of an offer on a house we wish to purchase. The vendor is currently fixed on achieving 98.5% of the asking price - this is after a recent 4% reduction, so effectively 95% of what they had it on the market for originally.  I think they are still asking for a bit too much, but in my current position, I would probably stretch to it if we could agree on some terms.

We have agreed to sell to our buyers with a completion prior to Christmas, but obviously time is too short for that to now happen with our purchase. We are flexible enough that we can put our belonging in storage over the festive period and stay with family, but would ideally like to be in our new home mid / late January at the latest (there are logical reasons for this - but won't bore you with them).  How do I go about making an offer but with this caveat to the seller - my fear is that they could just agree to it now and then hold up proceedings along the way and refuse to move out. I suppose the only thing in my favour is that come December I will have no house to sell and if it doesnt look to be progressing by then I can threaten to cancel the sale and still potentially find somewhere before the stamp duty cut.

Without rambling further - am I correct in thinking there is no way to enforce this as part of an offer, it would just be that it would be down as my aspirational timeline? Correct Or could I impose costs for delay such as rental / removal storage past a certain date? No, you can't other than in a scenario where you had exchanged but the vendor failed to complete on the given day.

Thanks for any thoughts!

My thoughts in bold

moneysavinghero

Chances of you being in the new place by late Jan are very slim. Anyone offering any sort of guarantee that you will is crazy. 

You could apply pressure by saying that you will drop the price if exchange has not occured by x date. But if i was the vendor i would want x date to be realistically achievable.

davidmcn

The only way to enforce such a condition would be to put it in the contract and exchange contracts. How quickly are you likely to be willing to commit to the purchase? Presumably you don't actually want to take shortcuts with your due diligence or not wait for your mortgage offer to turn up, and you also need your sale to exchange?

WR83

All very valid points - although not sure I agree on the chances of being in by late January are very slim, EA, conveyancer and bank all agree that's a reasonable timeline (albeit if everything is straightforward) at the moment. Only time will tell though, and definitely prudent to prepare for not being in!

And very valid about the committing / due diligence. Offer would still be subject to survey etc.

I think it will probably have to be an indication of aspirational timeline and hope for the best - and be prepared to pull out and find something else if not moving as quickly as we hope.

Falafels

Sadly, no matter how willing your vendor/purchaser is, so much of the process is out of their hands that nobody can make a completely infallible promise of this nature - right up until exchange of contracts. It may not even be the seller who holds up the transaction, but someone on your own side.

Even if you pull out and look for something else, there are no guarantees. The line "albeit if everything is straightforward" is breezing past the possibility that it may well not be.

greatcrested

There is a reason for the 2 stage process in property deals:

1) Exchange of Contracts

2) Completion

Until 1) there is no contract. Hence the term 'Exchange of Contracts'! Therefore anyone can withdraw, change the sale price, propose cancel or change the Completion date, jump up and down and do the hokey-pokey.

After 1) everything is set in stone (and you can only do the hokey-pokey if it's written into the contract).

There is no 3rd way that is legally enforcible (though morality often plays a role).

Drawingaline

We are three months in tomorrow, even if we are all ready to exchange next week we cannot get a removal company for at least three weeks! I think an 8-10 wk turnaround, while not impossible, is optimistic at best.